The Best International Relations Schools in the World

Foreign Policy magazine, in collaboration with the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) project at the College of William & Mary, is pleased to present the results of the 2018 Ivory Tower survey. The survey provides a snapshot of how top international relations scholars assess their discipline at a moment when the liberal international order — overseen by a U.S. president with little evident attachment to it — is in unprecedented flux.

Responses from 1,541 IR scholars at U.S. colleges and universities determined rankings for their field’s leading Ph.D., terminal master’s, and undergraduate programs. The scholars were asked to list the top five institutions in each category, and the percentages below reflect the portion of respondents who listed that school.

The survey is accompanied by two essays that address whether IR is in a state of existential crisis. Can IR help policymakers respond to President Donald Trump and other global challenges that they failed to predict? Francis Gavin, the director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, argues that the field of IR’s greatest strength is its adaptability and that other university departments would be wise to take their cues from schools of international affairs. Stephen Walt, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and columnist for FP, suggests that IR scholars have more work to do to get their own house in order before advising diplomats on how to do the same.

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The Best International Relations Schools in the World

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